Escape routine
You love your life...well, sort of. Your career hums along, but it isn't really in high gear and you fantasize about striking out on your own. Your weekends whiz by in a predictable blur of errands and social events, yet you would like to find time for volunteer work. And that half-marathon running clinic you've been meaning to take never seems to make it into your day planner. You'd love to spread your wings, but you're not sure you remember how.
Thoughts of shaking up your routine and fulfilling neglected desires -- whether to start a business, hop on the charity circuit or run a marathon -- often pop up once a woman hits midlife, notes Bonnie Haave, a psychologist in Edmonton and the former executive director of the Psychologists' Association of Alberta. With children on the road to independence or professional lives on a well-worn track, "midlife women may find themselves at that classic 'Is that all there is?' juncture," she says.Find time to reevaluate
Perhaps you've reached such a point in your life, otherwise known as a rut. You'd love to shake things up a bit, but can't seem to find the enthusiasm to clean out your closets let alone chart a new course. That's because "ruts have a way of sapping your energy," says Haave. "You start to think that something is wrong with you, that you're not good enough the way you are. And then you're really paralysed." What you need to do, says Haave, is release your inner dynamo -- that neglected part of you that says, I can do it and it'll be fun.
Barbara Swanston of Port Moody, B.C., found herself at a juncture after being laid off from a safe but uninspiring administrative job at a manufacturing company -- an experience that forced her to step back and reevaluate her life.
"I realized that for the past decade I had been doing the same thing, not only at work but on evenings and weekends, too," she recalls. "There weren't many surprises in my life." With two kids getting ready to leave the nest, Barbara, 54, became restless. "I had an urge to push through old boundaries," she adds.
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Thoughts of shaking up your routine and fulfilling neglected desires -- whether to start a business, hop on the charity circuit or run a marathon -- often pop up once a woman hits midlife, notes Bonnie Haave, a psychologist in Edmonton and the former executive director of the Psychologists' Association of Alberta. With children on the road to independence or professional lives on a well-worn track, "midlife women may find themselves at that classic 'Is that all there is?' juncture," she says.Find time to reevaluate
Perhaps you've reached such a point in your life, otherwise known as a rut. You'd love to shake things up a bit, but can't seem to find the enthusiasm to clean out your closets let alone chart a new course. That's because "ruts have a way of sapping your energy," says Haave. "You start to think that something is wrong with you, that you're not good enough the way you are. And then you're really paralysed." What you need to do, says Haave, is release your inner dynamo -- that neglected part of you that says, I can do it and it'll be fun.
Barbara Swanston of Port Moody, B.C., found herself at a juncture after being laid off from a safe but uninspiring administrative job at a manufacturing company -- an experience that forced her to step back and reevaluate her life.
"I realized that for the past decade I had been doing the same thing, not only at work but on evenings and weekends, too," she recalls. "There weren't many surprises in my life." With two kids getting ready to leave the nest, Barbara, 54, became restless. "I had an urge to push through old boundaries," she adds.
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